stalemate that threatens to take the country over the fiscal cliff in just over three weeks. meanwhile, one by one republicans are bowing to the president's demand that takes go up for the wealthy. >> will i accept a deal? >> yes. >> we don't have a lot of cards before year end. we have one house. that's it, the presidency and the senate. it's in the democrat's hands. >> since we agree with the democrats, 98% of the american people and 80% of the bush tax cuts, i would get that off the table now so they don't worry about it. >> democrats insist taxes are going up on the rich no matter what. >> if you don't increase tax rates 2%, you won't generate enough revenue to have meaningful deficit reductions. >> republicans want big spending cuts to programs like medicare and social security. >> we don't want to be back here in another year or ten years answering the same questions. >> reporter: as talks continue on both sides of pennsylvania avenue, americans from main street to wall street wait to see who will blink first. brian moore, nbc news in washington. >>> bad news in afghani